Earlier this year, pundits and analysts began staking out a spot for what might be Marcus' grave, citing high spend for minimal digital gains. Well, perhaps they jumped the gun. All along, Goldman Sachs ($GS) was staffing up and getting ready for Marcus' debut, and so far, Marcus is no wimp.
As shown above, it quickly racked up more than 16,000 ratings from users who only recently began engaging with Goldman's consumer banking platform. And that should scare the living daylights out of big banks like Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase, that are now on even footing with David Solomon's stealthy consumer competitor because no one can go into a bank branch for quite a while.
Marcus also boasts a rating higher than 4.97-out-of-5 (not shown), which, for that many ratings, suggests user satisfaction that every bank, lending upstart and payments app should find worrisome, if not downright terrifying.
This, big banking competitors, might find a little bit less worrisome, depending on their view of the economy. Goldman Sachs' cuts to job postings, at nearly 47%, are steeper than many of their consumer competitors, which runs counter to logic that would have expected a more drastic response from banks with a lot of open roles for tellers. At roughly 1,000 job postings being either eliminated or filled, it's still fewer positions being cut at other major Wall Street institutions.
Some of the biggest cuts, numbers-wise, are within 'consumer and investment management' and 'engineering' divisions, which suggests there could be an impact on staffing for Marcus in the short-run. But, Goldman's traditional businesses, like investment banking, and securities, also saw unseasonal cuts to job postings, and 2020's likely to be light on M&A (especially by recent years' standards).
All of this is to say - Goldman Sachs may have gotten into the consumer banking business at precisely the right time.
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.
Further Reading:
- JPMorgan Chase job postings tumble as Wall Street braces for recession
- Bank of America job postings fall and app engagement rises before earnings
- Uber hiring plummets amid sharing economy downturn
